China overtakes US to become biggest trading nation
For many economies, China will soon be most important trade partner, analysts say, showing need for it to play bigger role in global bodies
China has become the world's biggest trading nation in goods, ending the post-war dominance of the United States, according to official figures.
China's customs administration said the combined total for imports and exports in Chinese goods reached US$3.87 trillion in 2012, edging past the US$3.82 trillion trade in goods registered by the US Commerce Department.
The landmark total for Chinese trade indicates the extent of Beijing's dependence on the rest of the world to generate jobs and income compared with a US economy that remains twice the size, and more self-contained. The US economy is worth US$15 trillion compared with the US$7.3 trillion Chinese economy.
The US not only has a large internal market for goods, but also dominates the trade in services. US total trade amounted to US$4.93 trillion in 2012, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), with a surplus of US$195.3billion.
But like most Western nations, the US deficit in the trade of goods weighs heavily and is expected to get only larger.
The deficit in goods was more than US$700 billion compared with China's 2012 trade surplus, measured in goods, which totalled US$231.1 billion.
It is remarkable that an economy that is only a fraction of the size of the US economy has a larger trading volume
